“The owner of the Shell station bought a scanner to scan licenses to ensure that no minors would be served, but the clerk didn’t use the scanner,” Chief Boss said.

All four license holders will be ordered to appear before the Board of Selectmen for a hearing on March 3, even though, in all four cases, it was a clerk, not the license-holder, who served the minor. This is either a first offense or the first offense after a 30-month probationary period for all four license-holders, Chief Boss said.

During the sting, which was supervised by Oxford Police Sgt. Anthony P. Saad on Jan. 21, a volunteer police officer from the Hopedale Police Department accompanied a 20-year-old woman from Connecticut into each establishment, where she tried to purchase alcoholic beverages.

Oxford Police Officer Jeromy T. Grniet, school resource officer, remained outside in an unmarked cruiser until each compliance check was finished, then presented each server with either a letter of commendation or a notification that the law had been broken by serving a minor.

“The underage female had a vertical driver’s license that quite plainly stated that she was underage until October of 2009,” Chief Boss said.

Pine Ridge Country Club and Shamrock Farms also hold licenses, but were closed during the check.

In the past, police had notified establishments that a sting would be conducted soon, but this time, there was no prior notification, and there likely will be no warning when future stings will take place, Chief Boss said. And they will take place.

“If the governor’s budget goes through as proposed, we will lose our Community Policing grant that funded our compliance checks, but we will still do them. They may be different, but we will do whatever it takes to try to stop anyone from procuring for minors.”